The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-03-11
SKILLED IN FIGURES.
A PROFESSION IN WHICH TItET.E
is STILL ROOM.

Accountants and Their "Ways and Their
Manners"-Thc Accountant Not to be
Confounded With the Eookkeeper.
The Pay That somc Accountants Draw.
Especial Correspondence
Feb. 7.-There is atleast one
profession that is not overcrowded, one where
there is room on oil the rungs of the ladder
aecountaney. do not mean bookkeeping,
for the two are as distinct.as the army and
navy. The accountant is the result of the
evolution of the bookkeeper. Tomest people
The terms accountant bookkeeper and auditor
are almost synonymous, but the professional
accountant would not allow you to call him
bookkeeper, and would not employ the or
dinary office clerk for an assistant the reason
for this being that a man may be book
keeper, but bookkeeper for only one line of
business, while the accountant must know
the debit and credit systems of all business
Owing to the peculiar nature of our bank
ruptcy and similar laws, the accountant has
not 1ourished i'll this country, and he is found
in some few of the larger cities only. New
York has about seventeen, one-half of whom,
probably, have hung out their shingles DUR
ing the past year. Boston may have half a
dozen, and Chicago three But the many de-
falcations and other "rcidents" which have
occurred in our financial institutions seem to
render necessary the minist1ation of the
scrutinizing angel, and new recruits for the
honor are constantly appearing
The accountant is an emigrant from Great
Britain, where his brethren have formed
themselves into chartered society, with en-
trance examinations, fellowships, rules and
regulations, etc. Consequently the business
here is mainly carried on by Englishmen and
Scotchmen, though in its present onward
march it is being Joined by some Yankee
recruits, graduates from the counting house
stool. AS training school the counting
house or business Office is not regarded in q
very favorable light by the professional ac-
countant. He says that a bookkeeper in the
dry goods trade may know the cash book and
ledger of that business as well as he does his
employers bewhiskered countenance, but if
the same bookkeeper be taken up bodily and
placed on stool in the Office of a beer brewery
he will be as useless as the veriest tyro, and
will have to learn his business all over again.
The accountant finds his services most i'm
demand by insurance companies, breweries,
corporations, bankrupt firms, assignees, etc,
He is also called upon to prepare balance
sheets, profit and loss accounts, financial
statements, etc. His work is charged for at
SO much day, though he sometimes makes a
contract. Sometimes a suspected clerk is
given short vacation, or is sent away on
some small matter of business; then the ac-
countant is told to turn his experienced eve
loose on the books, and if there be the slight
est evidence of their being crooked he will
discover it. He knows just where to look,
and although it may take him months to
prepare detailed, infallible statement of his
findings, only @ few hours are needed for him
to decide whether the matter warrants fur
ther inquiry. .s- ...s.
The incomes made by accountants are in
some cases very considerable. 1 know of one
gentleman who for three months work rem
dered the state of New York by himself and
his assistants, sent in a bill for $4,000; and
one has testified in civil suit that his net
profits for the year were $1,000 or $4,000, be
didn't know which The clerks are paid from
$50 to $50 q week, and must be better men
than first rate hookkeepers Hitherto, how
ever, the accountant has generally done his
own clerking, and carried his office in his hat:
but now the business is OH o larger scale.
AAoAS NiSi no hCOLeu, cliiu III Is flOG q DaQ
employment for young men. The course of
training lasts about five years, and at the end
of this time they would know their business
pretty well and would be receiving Giving"
salary.
The work is hard, combining, lacking i'm
variety; and good eyesight, a clear brain, and
steady nerves are requisite A silent tongue
is essential. No "tippling" is permitted as
things get mixed enough without the aid of
liquor. A managing clerk in one of the
larger offices told me that for years he had
been haunted by the small details of his DAVIS
work, that even when he had escaped from
the realm of debts and credits and gone to
his modest fat on the west SIDE his brain con-
tinued working on some spectral problem,
and repeating that nine and seven is sixteen
and eight is twenty-four, etc. So it kept OIL,
night and day.
A days work consists of seven or eight
hours, though in the S10,O case before al
luded to the principal and fifteen assistants
labored ten hours day for the three months
The auditors Office at Washington contains
number of skilled accountants, some of whom
have rendered excellent service to the public.
But the persons whose names appear in the
lists of railroad officials as "auditorsn are
usually such in name only, the real auditing
being done by some subordinate with an ex-
tensive knowledge Of bookkeeping and q
1lmlnutlve salary. ALFRED ARNoT